The performance of conviction : plainness and rhetoric in the early English Renaissance, Kenneth J.E. Graham

The Resource The performance of conviction : plainness and rhetoric in the early English Renaissance, Kenneth J.E. Graham

The performance of conviction : plainness and rhetoric in the early English Renaissance, Kenneth J.E. Graham

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Belief or skepticism, obedience or resistance to authority, theatricality or stoic self-possession - Kenneth J.E. Graham explores these alternatives in the culture of early modern England. Focusing on plainness - a stylistic feature of much Renaissance writing - he surveys texts including Wyatt's anti-courtly verse, the Puritan Admonition to Parliament, Ascham's Scholemaster, Greville's non-dramatic writings, and works of Shakespearean tragedy, revenge tragedy, and verse satire. Graham shows how plainness functions not only as a literary style, but also as a mode of political and religious rhetoric that reflects powerful historical currents. Plainness is a result of the claim to possess the plain truth - a self-evident, absolute truth. In the absence of rhetorical criteria for truth, however, plainness registers a conviction that is plain to those who share it but opaque to those who don't. The plain truth can denote either the truth proclaimed and enforced by a public authority, whether liberal or conservative, or the truth of private conviction, which may oppose public authority. According to Graham, the pervasiveness of plainness in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is evidence of a failure of consensus, as authorities made conflicting, irresolvable claims to certainty. The rhetoric of plainness, he asserts, reveals a profound opposition between the attitude of persuasion, a moderately skeptical, pragmatic, and inclusive outlook characteristic of Erasmian humanism, and a stance of conviction, an absolutist, essentialist, and exclusive attitude more typical of Neostoicism and political and moral conservatism

Belief or skepticism, obedience or resistance to authority, theatricality or stoic self-possession - Kenneth J.E. Graham explores these alternatives in the culture of early modern England. Focusing on plainness - a stylistic feature of much Renaissance writing - he surveys texts including Wyatt's anti-courtly verse, the Puritan Admonition to Parliament, Ascham's Scholemaster, Greville's non-dramatic writings, and works of Shakespearean tragedy, revenge tragedy, and verse satire. Graham shows how plainness functions not only as a literary style, but also as a mode of political and religious rhetoric that reflects powerful historical currents. Plainness is a result of the claim to possess the plain truth - a self-evident, absolute truth. In the absence of rhetorical criteria for truth, however, plainness registers a conviction that is plain to those who share it but opaque to those who don't. The plain truth can denote either the truth proclaimed and enforced by a public authority, whether liberal or conservative, or the truth of private conviction, which may oppose public authority. According to Graham, the pervasiveness of plainness in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is evidence of a failure of consensus, as authorities made conflicting, irresolvable claims to certainty. The rhetoric of plainness, he asserts, reveals a profound opposition between the attitude of persuasion, a moderately skeptical, pragmatic, and inclusive outlook characteristic of Erasmian humanism, and a stance of conviction, an absolutist, essentialist, and exclusive attitude more typical of Neostoicism and political and moral conservatism

Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California at Berkeley

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Carrier category

volume

Carrier category code

nc

Carrier MARC source

rdacarrier

Content category

text

Content type code

txt

Content type MARC source

rdacontent

Contents

Foreword / Wayne A. Rebhorn -- Introduction. Captive to Truth: Rethinking Renaissance Plainness -- 1. Wyatt's Antirhetorical Verse: Privilege and the Performance of Conviction -- 2. Educational Authority and the Plain Truth in the Admonition Controversy and The Scholemaster -- 3. Peace, Order, and Confusion: Fulke Greville and the Inner and Outer Forms of Reform -- 4. The Mysterious Plainness of Anger: The Search for Justice in Satire and Revenge Tragedy -- 5. The Performance of Pride: Desire, Truth, and Power in Coriolanus and Timon of Athens -- 6. "Without the form of justice": Plainness and the Performance of Love in King Lear -- Epilogue: A Precious Jewel?

Control code

29184898

Dimensions

24 cm

Extent

xiv, 232 pages

Isbn

9780801428715

Isbn Type

(alk. paper)

Media category

unmediated

Media MARC source

rdamedia

Media type code

n

System control number

(WaOLN)1584841

Label

The performance of conviction : plainness and rhetoric in the early English Renaissance, Kenneth J.E. Graham

Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California at Berkeley

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Carrier category

volume

Carrier category code

nc

Carrier MARC source

rdacarrier

Content category

text

Content type code

txt

Content type MARC source

rdacontent

Contents

Foreword / Wayne A. Rebhorn -- Introduction. Captive to Truth: Rethinking Renaissance Plainness -- 1. Wyatt's Antirhetorical Verse: Privilege and the Performance of Conviction -- 2. Educational Authority and the Plain Truth in the Admonition Controversy and The Scholemaster -- 3. Peace, Order, and Confusion: Fulke Greville and the Inner and Outer Forms of Reform -- 4. The Mysterious Plainness of Anger: The Search for Justice in Satire and Revenge Tragedy -- 5. The Performance of Pride: Desire, Truth, and Power in Coriolanus and Timon of Athens -- 6. "Without the form of justice": Plainness and the Performance of Love in King Lear -- Epilogue: A Precious Jewel?